


Nowhere Falls

by orphan_account



Series: Nowhere Falls [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: All the space things, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, Badass Mabel Pines, F/M, Found Family, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kinda Badass Dipper Pines, Post-War, Space Opera Tropes, Space Pirates, Tags Are Fun, The Northwests are trash, except it's like two times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22322830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Pride Station rots with corruption. The Northwests- hot of their heel for their part in the Dust Fire War- have made a once proud station a cesspool of despair.Two years after the deaths of their parents, Dipper and Mabel Pines have still not yet gotten off station. After a failed heist to put some credits in their pocket, they decide enough is enough and plan a bold escape.It's big universe out there.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Nowhere Falls [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608712
Kudos: 3





	Nowhere Falls

The High District of Pride was basked in light even in the early AM hours. The billboards and street lamps lit the streets in a gentle glow and even with how early it was the streets were filled with either High District residents going home after a night of drinking or leaving home for work. The sidewalks were at least better than the Lower District’s. There weren’t any junkies or alcoholics or people who had decided to off themselves than continue living in the slums. 

That was fine with Dipper. Both he and Mabel had enough of the slums in which they grew up, but if they succeeded in this heist, both of them would be off station by the next cycle.

 _The keyword_ , Dipper thought morbidly, _was_ if. That and if Mabel’s driving didn’t kill them first. She had only a couple days of piloting the hovercycle, and it was obvious that she had no clue on how to do so safely.

“Mabel!” Dipper cried as she weaved in and out of the traffic laughing maniacally. They drifted past a light pole, close enough that Mabel grabbed it and used it to push herself off the sidewalk and back onto the street. 

“Now’s not the time for theatrics! You can do it when we get on the _Freedom_.” Mabel didn’t respond but she nodded with understanding, slowing the repurposed delivery cycle down enough that dying wasn’t an immediate concern, and that no High District members would try and report them.

Dipper spat some of her dirty red hair out as it blew past the back of her mask. Even with her hair cut to a short bob and the scraggy fleece over her coat, Dipper still thought that dying both their hair would keep them out of the Peacekeepers' eyes. Or at least confuse them with other Lower District orphans. Honestly, he would feel bad for them, except that pretty much every other person living there would gladly try to stab them in the back- sometimes literally. He ran his hands through his hair idly, still thinking that keeping his hair longer would separate the two of them even further. With Mabel's ripped red leather coat and Dipper's faded gold shirt, they looked nothing alike, but if anyone looked close enough at them, they would be hard-pressed to keep up the ruse.

"So," Mabel called back to him, her voice muffled through her mask. "What's the plan again?"

"First things first," Dipper shouted back. "Let's get to the Ebony Halo. Once we arrive we can go from there."

"Right!" She revved the engines and shot forward through an opening in the traffic, slipping past like a laser through butter. "Can you get me the directions?" 

"Yeah." Dipper reached back into his pack and pulled out Waddles, their somewhat functional droid shaped like an old Earth pig. The hand-sized droid looked up at Dipper with a series of clicks. "Remind me to thank Waddles for the recon." He released the death grip he had on Mabel and placed his glowing data pad on the droid's head and typed a command in. "Getting coordinates." Couple more taps later. "And sending to you... There!" The pad buzzed and Mabel's chimed after a second.

Mabel let go of the handle with her nondominant hand and glanced at it. "K looks like it's right in the middle of the Entertainment District." She turned back to Dipper. "And yeah, you kinda need to thank Waddles."

Dipper rolled his eyes but did so grudgingly. 

The station was waking up, and when Dipper checked his HUD he could see that the markets and stall were opening and prices and offers were being offered so fast that he had to blink to clear the sudden brightness, Pride was a large station and as far as Dipper could tell most of the time it meant that it took the Peacekeepers at least twenty minutes to an hour to get from one point to another. That meant both he and Mabel had a very tight window to pull the heist off.

They whizzed past Station Hall and Dipper caught a glimpse of the senators, all- or at least most- who were either bought or bribed by the Northwests to do their dirty work.

"Hey, Dip," Mabel told him as they passed the statue of Phineas Northwest, the founder of Pride. "Looks like they fixed the old man." Phineas looked like he was before their whole encounter; a strong-jawed man with three rockets in the background. "Shame we didn't do more damage. That was a wild day."

It was true, Dipper could remember how the two of them blew up the statue during last year's mandated Pride Founding Day. Well, it was more Mabel that blew it up, it was Dipper that managed to hack into the Pride network and live stream Phineas's explosive 'retirement' all across the galaxy. That was also the reason why the Peacekeepers that were stationed around the slums were now allowed to use lethal force if they “deemed it necessary”. 

That did not make the twins popular.

Mabel still had the burn marks from when they had to deal with the Jhawn mob. The only reason they managed to get out of that alive was because of Mabel's aim and Dipper managing to drive a hovercar into the building. But it came with a cost; since the gravity engine exploding made the already screwed up artificial gravity in the slums worse, by causing random spasms of Zero-G.

Mabel had commented if it was better to destroy Pride than try to get off of it. Dipper had replied that if they destroyed the station than all the High District members would evacuate and leave the rest of them to die. 

Mabel tapped her fingers over the handles impatiently as they waited for a supply train to pass. "Wish we could've stolen somthin' from that. The Freedom doesn't have enough rations for us to get to Yevao." 

"We'll be fine," Dipper told her. "Fidds replaced the regular engine with one of the newer Infinity Model ones. He said there's less of a chance it'll explode if we Rift. It's faster and we'll be able to get to Yevao in one or two cycles. " At least, that's what Dipper hoped would happen. Fidds was a genius but he wasn't the sanest of people. Given the fact he often dressed as an asteroid miner, Dipper theorized Fidds had lost his mind during a mining operation and subsequently shipped off to Pride when it docked to refuel. 

"How far are we?" Dipper asked before he noticed a floating billboard highlighted with the words: **Entering The Entertainment District.**

"We're in the ED, Dipstick," Mabel commented bitterly. "We'll be coming up to the Halo in 5."

Dipper patted her consolingly. Their parents used to work up here before an asteroid shower took out a good chunk of it, along with most of the engineers, computer techs and street cleaners. What was worse was the main Northwest family- the ones who were the direct descendants of good- ol' Nathaniel himself- boarded the ship and personally broadcast their 'deepest apologies' to the next of kin of the people lost. 

Dipper had to physically hold Mabel down before she did anything she would regret.

That was two years, four months and six days ago and it was still clear that the Entertainment District was still healing. Even with all the money, the Northwests had, rebuilding after such a colossal impact was next to impossible, especially if they didn't dock at any nonhuman colony. Given how xenophobic most politicians on Pride were, it made sense. And given how most of the galaxy looked at humans with distaste since they started the Dust Fire War it made even more sense. 

There were huge gaps in the ceiling that were covered with a see through light blue force field, letting Dipper see through to the empty expanse above. The last he checked, Pride was entering the Asalt system and was due to dock on Asine in three to four cycles. Of course, the Northwests had kicked out the native species living there to make a resort on their home planet. To put salt in the wound, they built it in their _capital city._

Mabel pulled up next to a large casino and stopped the cycle. "We're here!" She sang and hopped off. Dipper jumped off as well and helped Mabel pull their beaten up, red cycle into an alleyway. Mabel had taken her mask off, which was more of a helmet with large goggles completely fitting over the top half of her head. Her face was guant, likely from days without proper nutrition.

The alley was cramped but had enough room that Mabel could shoot out when something went wrong. Dipper hoped that wouldn't happen, but knowing their past luck, it was fracking unlikely. Mabel looked up at the expansive casino- its lights blinding and signs flashing all the new games that they were offering- and looked back at Dipper. "We going in or...?" 

" _We_ aren't doing anything, I'm going in." Dipper chided and adjusted his boots. "There's no point to have both us in there if something goes wrong. It'll be fine, remember; the Neon Kings are playing close by. Not a whole lot of people should be here."

"But how're you gonna get into the Northwest suite? It's on top." She pointed up and Dipper had to squint to even catch a glimpse of it

"Simple. I'll just go through the food tubes." He looked back down, put his foot on top of the cycle and tapped the sole. "Fidds fiddled around with one of his old work boots so they're magnetic." 

"I dunno bro," Mabel muttered looking despondent. "That sounds real dangerous. Y'sure we can't do anything else to get up there?" 

"Mabes, this is a Northwest. They're loaded. Even with a fraction of what they have would be enough for us to live in a nice suite in Yevao until we're twenty- one." He snapped his fingers in front of her. "We need this. You know how bad Pride is, if we're still here when we're twenty-one, we have to start doing the less savory stuff."

Mabel averted her eyes but said nothing. Dipper took her hand and massaged it gently. "C'mon. We get this score, we can be free. C'mon, let me see that Mabel smile."

Mabel rubbed her fingers along his knuckles and gave him a shy smile, her snaggle teeth visible through the crack. "And we can fix up your teeth." He gripped her hand. "Are you ready?"

Mabel set her face and gave a determined nod. "Yeah."

"Then let's do this."

* * *

Things actually went smoothly surprisingly. While the Halo had bouncers to keep out 'undesirables'- either Lower City workers or High District kids that weren't of age- Dipper had to be inventive to get inside.

Luckily, he had Mabel.

Unluckily, he had _Mabel_.

So when the two heavy-set men saw a short 12- year old boy wearing a worn out beanie and a ripped vest over his faded gold shirt with long matted blonde hair covering half his face and wearing dark stained pants, they were anticipating a slum kid. What they weren't expecting was for him to announce he was Duke Grampton St. Rumpterfrabble of Cotillion, and that he was to be let through.

Dipper regretted finding that old movie. 

When questioned about his height and obvious youth, Dipper shot back that Rifting did strange things to people. The bouncers, not really understanding- and not wanting to- looked at him in bewilderment but let him through. Mabel had told him if he acted the part, no one would think he wasn't who he said he was. And given how knowledgeable he was about Rifting and the two years he and Mabel did cons, lying through his teeth was like breathing.

The inside of the Halo looked remarkably similar to the outside; gold inlay and holographic games lining the floor. There weren't many people, a couple and their butler and what looked like the Prime Minister of Uuti. He tapped the side of his earpiece. "Y'hear me Mabes?" He whispered as he slunk his way through. 

There was a crackling noise as his sister's voice was patched through. "Affirmative, bro-bro. I can hear ya nice'n clear."

"Good. Just so you know once I enter the tubes it'll be radio silence. Anything you need to tell me, tell me now."

"Jus' be careful. I don' see any PKs. But that could change real fast. How soon can you hack the target?"

"I'll try to be quick. Shan't take me more than an hour." He made his way to a holo- sign and gauged where the nearest food duct would be.

Food tubes connected the entire casino to the kitchen, originally designed to move supplies throughout warships, they were then repurposed to move food that room service couldn't do fast enough. Dipper took one look at the map and mentally plotted his route. The kitchens shouldn't be open at the moment, any food that would be in the tubes would be from the previous day, which made it open enough that he would be able to ascend upwards with little difficulty.

He made his way towards the nearest duct, a compartment next to a set of tables. He flicked a disk off his belt. With one arm he placed the small explosive over the cover and wandered behind a potted plant. Mabel's bombs had a habit of exploding violently but he had gotten Fidds to look over this one, just in case. He closed his eyes, crossed his fingers and typed the command into his data pad. There was a small popping sound and the duct's compartment came clattering off. Luckily there was no one around, or at least anyone sober enough to remember him the next cycle. 

He stuffed himself into the tube, it was a tight fit and the reason why Mabel couldn't join him, after all her exploits with their dad, she was- quite frankly- too big to fit in the tubes.

There was also the fact that she might sneak off and plant explosives when he wasn't looking. One of her earlier plans was to threaten to blow up Station Hall if the Northwest didn't give them half a million credits.

"Mabel," He whispered. "Are you in position?"

"Yep." Mabel replied, popping the p.

"Right, you have the drive?"

Uh-huh. Jus' plug it into the generator?"

Dipper nodded absently, banging his head into the side. "Yeah, that'll allow me to hack into the mainframe and turn on the tubes."

"K,k." There was a moment of Mabel rustling around the outside of the casino. "What does the generator look like.. whoop! Never mind! Found it!" 

Dipper's pad glowed, Mabel must have done it. He typed a command into it, and the tube started humming and a light green glow started. "Alrighty then," Dipper said, slipping into his mother's old accent- British was it?. "We are a go for the Freedom Heist."

He typed a command in and pulled up lines of code onto his HUD, with a couple of keystrokes he disabled the firewall and granted him full access. The tube rumbled gently and the Zero-G activated. Dipper gently rose upwards, placing his feet on the sides to help push himself up. When they were used by the casino the ZG was stronger. Seeing as he didn't have the luxury of a room service droid to catch him before he slammed into a duct leading to a specific floor, this was the next best thing. The trip up would take roughly a half hour, giving Mabel enough time to place the distractions if something went wrong.

Not seeing anything better to do, he tapped the pad and synced up The Galactic News Network to play into his ear. Pride didn't allow alien networks on board but his mom had found a breach that could patch through snippets. He surfed through the different channels trying to find a human one. No one on Pride had translation nanites, so it made learning about the goings on in the wider galaxy hard. 

With the news from the Council- the main representative government body of the galaxy- playing through his ears, Dipper focused on going up, turning a small dial on the side of the boots to adjust for any changes. Apparently the infamous space pirate Rust had managed to steal a shipment of Kwthian crystals from a Gregortan fleet heading to a diplomatic meeting. Dipper didn't know a whole lot about Gregortans, but from what he gathered listening to the report, they were a species of violent, belligerent snail-like sapients that tended to use antimatter weaponry. How Rust managed to do that was besides him and from what the reporters told were telling, no one else knew either. 

He sent the link to Mabel- she was vividly interested in anything dealing with him, using some of his escapades as a basis for some of their cons. This one included.

A half an hour later- and three more reports from the Council, dealing with a marriage, a new treaty and how the Northwests had recently tried to place on of their one into it- Dipper spotted the entrance to the sixtieth floor duct. He grabbed onto it and pulled himself forward. If it was later in the cycle, there would have been a droid that would have reached in to grab the food. There was no droid and there was no food, making Dipper roll out in a ball. He rubbed the back of his head and stood up. The hallway was empty and dark, making Dipper hold up his pad to light the way. 

The Northwest suite door was directly in front of him, the keypad to the right of him. He took a glance at it and smirked, using your own lock on your own suite? Really? He shook his head, the Northwests made this too easy. He could hack into it in his sleep, but seeing how Mabel told him to do as much as he could do to inconvenience them. He gave a predatory smile and tapped the pad against the keypad and uploaded a virus that he managed to contain from the Lower District. The keypad crackled and exploded in a series of sparks. Great for him, there was no noise from it. 

He pushed the door open gently, the room was dark, quiet and it looked like nobody was in at the moment. Perfect. He snuck in with little thought. He had planted a small EMP on entrance of the door, hopefully disabling anything that would reveal who he was. 

He had a vague idea where the nearest terminal was and if he could find a data pad. He swept his hands over the bed, oddly enough it was still unmade. Even if it was early a droid should have entered and made the room up. Unless...

Dipper whirled around, keeping a hand on his holster. "Mabel," He hissed. "Scan the room for anyone organic. I don't think I'm alone."

"Y'ain't." Mabel replied. "I'm getting a heat signature from the couch over there." And Dipper's heart sank as he turned over to the general location of the couch and saw the faint outline of a woman.

"Shite."

"Yeah, should we call it off?"

"What? No way Mabe." Dipper growled. "I can do this." He gently approached the couch while he slowly turned the brightness down on his pad. The woman that was passed out on the couch looked like a classic Northwest. Her long, silky brown hair was spread out in a veil over her face, and it became obvious that she used too many nanites to try and fix her wrinkles. She was draped over the couch, one hand lying on the ground and the other had the data pad. 

Dipper worked quickly; he silently removed it from her wrist and placed next to him as he squatted. Pulling out his tools he worked on opening the pad. With one hand he got the screwdriver underneath the casing and pried it open, letting him see the mess of wires and circuits. He pulled out a flash drive that he had transferred as many anti malware programs as he could get his hands on. The Northwests probably had so many hidden bugs and viruses in case someone tried to hack them. Thankfully, the slums were filled with malware, and one had to learn quickly to avoid any terminals if they didn't have a debugger. 

The upload took around ten seconds and Dipper synced it up to his pad. "Right, all I gotta do is rewire the account from this gal and link it mum and dad's."

"Dip, you're rambling."

"... and then I need to rework the firewall so that no one can tell this was hacked."

"Dip. You're gonna wake her the lady up."

Dipper shut up and continued typing. With a couple more keystrokes he could tell that the credit transfer was almost complete, when a red error sign appeared. "What the frack?" He pulled up the reasoning and skimmed through it. "Wait. A fracking _biometric_ scanner? They don't even have those on regular data pads! And they have one? That's just fracking great!"

"What does that mean?"

"I can't hack into it Mabel!" He almost roared. "If this is one of the newer ones, then the only way I can get through is if I tear out this lady's eyes and put it up to the camera."

"Well, it's not like we would care."

"I'm not ripping out someone's eyes just to hack them."

"Nerfer."

"Hey," Dipper snapped. "Language."

"I'll say whatever I want, nerfer. We ain't getting off station without the credits."

Dipper grit his teeth and clenched his fist and slammed it into the wall. Mabel was right; the fuel needed to get to Yevao would cost more than what their parents had saved up. And even if they got a lesser fuel, they would still need to bribe the right people just to stay unnoticed. 

"Mabel, I'll see what I can do. Maybe there's a weak point I can breach." Dipper pulled the code back up. His mom was a specialized data analyst, he should have gotten some of her skills. The lines of code whizzed past his eyes. He typed frantically, trying dozens of passwords that he could use to get past the biometric lock. Nothing worked, the only feasible way to open it up was to actually continue with the plan to rip the woman's eyes out, but he had made a promise to himself, no killing.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, running his hands down his face. "What're we going to do?" There was no way out of it, unless...

Dipper blinked. Maybe there was a way. If he could stimulate the lady's eye enough- without waking her- than there was a chance, however slim, of actually tricking the biometric scanner into unlocking.

The trick was to not wake the Northwest.

Carefully he lifted the data pad over her eye and with his other arm grabbed his blaster and shot a small concentrated blast of electricity at the woman's body. The woman spasmed violently, her eye flickering open before slumping over unconscious, smelling vaguely of burnt meat.

 _Well that was easier than... nope._ Dipper thought before the data pad buzzed an ominous red. That should have expected, pain spasms were different than regular eye ones and of course it would have alerted the PKs to the coordinates. _Shite. Sloppy work Dipper._

"Mabel, I need that distraction now!" He yelled as he reattached his data pad and fired a shot at the window to the side of the bed. He dialed up the boots magnetic grip to the max and started to step out.

"What did you do?"

"Fracking pad had a block against involuntary eye movement. I can't break into it." He told her, praying that Fidds boots worked like intended. He placed a foot on the side of the Halo, it pulled his foot hard onto it. He placed the other foot and stood there for a second, the magnets keeping him strong. Until, he dialed it back and lept off.

* * *

Free falling wasn't an unusual problem on Pride, usually it was with ceiling engineers that fell off during work but most of the time the cables anchoring them to their station would keep them plummeting to their death. He would have been more freaked it, if it were not for the fact that both of them had something like this happen multiple times.

This was different. their usual falls were falls down exhaust tubes, while this was tumble head over heels down the side of a 206.15 miles building. Thankfully Fidds had his vest had built in with nanites that deployed a small parachute to slow his descent but he was still falling hard. 

The vertigo was killing him: up, down, left, right, he couldn't tell which was where he was and started to get queasy. Mabel should have already activated the sonic bombs, and that should get the attention of any Peacekeeper in the area. 

"Dip! Did you jump?" He heard Mabel say through the earpiece. "Wait." She had connected the dots. "Never mind."

He sighed hard and ran his fingers through his hair. They were in trouble, the heist had gone wrong and with this newest incident, the Northwest woman would probably leave the next time they docked and the Halo would be put under stricter surveillance. Their grand escape was put under fire and Dipper was frantically racking his brain for any plan the two of them could do, but came up empty. 

No more cons, no more heists. No more...

His musings were interrupted by a loud explosion from underneath him and from the pops that emitted from the ground, he could tell that Mabel had placed her entire stock. For a plan that didn't even go right. If the guilt from the heist was bad, this was a whole new level. Mabel had spent months making them, only taking them out if she was _positive_ they were good enough. 

He was still falling but was close enough to the ground to actually see details. He could faintly see Mabel sitting up with her legs crossed over on their hovercycle. He managed to reach back to his boots and dialed the boots to the max. He fell a few more inches, before he was slammed back onto the Halo. The boots had shock absorbers, so his legs weren't immediately snapped, but it still hurt. 

He swept his gaze and could faintly see the blue and red lights of the Peacekeepers. They had to get out immediately, if they stayed, there was a chance they would be detained and possibly executed. 

"Mabel." He said into the earpiece. "Do you have any more sonic bombs left?"

"A couple." Mabel replied. "What are you planning?" 

"Let me get down there, we go running and throw them behind us. Can you give me your grabbling cable?" Before Mabel could answer, Dipper took a deep breath and leapt off again, trusting that Mabel would fire the cable on time. 

He could hear shots fired. The Peacekeepers must have hurried to get here. Mabel was in danger but would she be able to fire her hook?

He was promptly answered when a fist sized ball shot up towards him, it's hinges opening up and forming a small pad. Grabbing the cable, he hooked himself and pulled it. 

He tied the cable around himself and hoped for the best. 

He was yanked down sharply, the cable spool reeling in and Dipper was afraid that Mabel wouldn't release him in time. Mabel had a habit of doing that. At the last second he was stopped by a street lamp, he grabbed onto it and untied it.

Mabel was hiding behind a trash can she must have pulled to protect herself from the torrent of shots. He was on the street behind her, letting him slip down relatively unnoticed. Mabel caught a glimpse at him, her mask was pulled down and she was holding a blaster with both hands, occasionally firing back.

"Thanks." He said as he wound up the gravity hook.

"No prob, Bob." She replied, taking the gravity hook from him. "You ready to head out?"

"Yeah," He told her. "I'm really sorry that we couldn't get the money."

Her voice was even but living with her long enough, Dipper could tell she was still upset; "S'fine. We can always get 'em next time."

"True."

She motioned with her head towards the hovercycle. "Let's do this."

She discarded the obviously stolen blaster in favor of her own. A quad blaster that she had personally made, it had two separate barrels and a range of elemental ammo. It had saved their lives six times and endangered it another ten.

Mabel pulled out a sonic bomb and threw it in the general direction of the Peacekeepers. There was a chatter among them before Mabel pulled the trigger and hopped onto the hovercycle. "You nerfers have 5 seconds to let us go before I blow this whole place sky high!" She yelled, shooting a couple blasts above the trash can.

There was a blast and a bolt of plasma melted through the trash can. Dipper ducked and Mabel aimed her blaster through the hole.

"Alternatively," Came a deep modulated voice. "You can surrender."

Mabel scoffed and revved the hovercycle's engine. "I ain't scared."

The voice laughed. "You do realize this isn't a real bomb, do you? Sonic weaponry," He tsked. "Never as good as plasma."

Mabel snarled and patted behind her for Dipper to hop on. She activated the anti-grav and lifted the hovercycle up on top of the trash can. From their vantage point Dipper could see the Peacekeepers; they were wearing their standard uniforms: a dark blue armor made out of a flexible metal, impervious to normal attacks, weak against what Mabel usually had packed. All except their leader, he was almost as tall as their dad- and their dad was real tall- and had a build similar to his, burly and tough enough to smash his way through a wall. He was also carrying a Class 5 Heavy Duty Subatomic Ripper, illegal on all non- human controlled planets. It looked like Pride had one of the Northwests bodyguards shipped in, _great_.

"Please identify yourselves." He told them, hefting the Ripper onto his shoulder, aiming it directly at them. "Or face atomic destabilization."

Mabel glared at the Enforcer and pulled the trigger close to her chest. "We are Mason and Mabel Pines. Champions of the Resistance." Mabel looked solemnly down at them before giving a wicked grin. "Now eat this sucka!" She pressed the trigger and fired a couple shots at the Peacekeepers. 

The ground erupted in wires and metal and out of the screeching Dipper could faintly hear the far off sound of ' _Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga'.  
_

" _Hooked on a Feeling_ , Mabel?" Dipper asked as Mabel tore through the streets, the sonic bomb taking out most of the Peacekeepers and incapacitating the Enforcer. "You had dad's entire playlist and you chose that?"

Mabel didn't reply in as so many words. Instead she belted out the chorus at the top of her lungs. "I'm hooked on a feeling, I'm high on believing. That you're in love with meeee!" She swept her arm back and fired another few shots at a couple of pedestrians, they ducked out of the way and Dipper was worried that Mabel was making them an even bigger target.

"Mabel, what are you doing?" He yelled as they swerved past hover cars, darting through cramped alleyways.

"Sticking it to the rich folk." She replied, disgust evident in her voice. "They'll be fine, it's on stun mode."

"That doesn't mean you can fire your blaster all willy-nilly!" 

Mabel said nothing but instead gunned the engines, she tapped a button on the hovercycle handles. The seat buzzed uncomfortably and the boosters activated, shooting the two of them forward in a flash of light.

Dipper yelped and wrapped his arms around Mabel as she pulled out driving up onto the pavement, scattering more pedestrians who dove out of the way of the insane duo. She was pissed, and Dipper could tell why. He could only hope she wouldn't kill them first.

The bright lights of the High District melted away as they passed through the tunnel leading back to the Low District. The saying used to be 'home is where the heart' is but back here it was more like 'home is where you don't get shivved in the back by a junkie so they could steal any credits you had.' (Mabel's words, not his.)

The change was immediate. The instant they popped back out, Mabel had already shot a junkie that noticed them and stumbled over. A blast of plasma smashed into his face, melting a hole through it and having the junkie collapse to the ground in a heap.

"Your plan didn't work." Mabel said after a long silence, the two of them weaving through the streets, Dipper keeping a wary eye out for anyone looking at them the wrong way. "Now it's my turn."

"What?" Dipper asked turning to look at her.

"Couple of cycles ago, I managed to steal some Falthian energy batteries. Y'know how much they sell for down here."

Dipper's mind was spinning and he looked back at Mabel in shock.

"I've got the fuel we need and a couple hundred credits to get us a started."

"So that means...."

Mabel turned and looked at him dead in the eye. "We're getting off Pride tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! Two stories at the same time. Both of which are not the best quality.
> 
> Glossary of terms
> 
> Pride: Essentially space Vegas
> 
> Peacekeepers: Pride's security force
> 
> Rift/Rifting: My version of FTL travel, punches a rift through time and space


End file.
